


An Early Morning Lesson

by pinwheelwhirl



Category: All Hail King Julien
Genre: Aquaphobia, Be nice to Momo he has feelings, I have to do everything myself, There isn't actually romance in this but I'm tagging the ship anyway, WHY IS THERE NO CONTENT FOR THESE TWO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:09:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinwheelwhirl/pseuds/pinwheelwhirl
Summary: In which Clover finds out why Maurice doesn't know how to swim.





	An Early Morning Lesson

**Author's Note:**

> In "Election", Maurice tells Clover he can't swim. In Exiled, he swims. A lot. He must've learned somewhere. :3c

Clover gazed at Maurice asleep in his bed. She debated if she should’ve knocked before barging into his house, but really, that just wasn’t her. Besides, Maurice was incredibly fun to scare awake, second only to the king. She leaned down close to his ear.

 

“MAURICE!”

 

The aye aye shot up in his bed, screaming. He looked around in fear before settling his eyes on Clover. “What-- Clover, what’s wrong? What happened? Where’s King Julien?”

 

“Nothing’s wrong, King Julien is still asleep.”

 

Maurice tried to slow his breathing down. He glanced at the dark window. “...what time is it?”

 

“Almost five.”

 

“Fi-- why are you waking me up at five in the morning if nothing’s wrong?!”

 

Clover wanted to grin, but she kept her face neutral. “You’ll see. Let’s go.” She started towards the door.

 

“Go  _ where _ ?” Maurice asked, making no move to follow her.

 

“You just have to make this difficult, don’t you?” Clover sighed. She yanked him out of the bed by his tail. 

 

“Augh! Clover! Alright, alright, I’m coming!”

 

The sun slowly rose over the island as Clover led Maurice out the beach. Morning waves crashed over the sand, the morning sun’s rays shining on the water. Maurice stopped in his tracks as Clover continued towards the water. “What are we doing here?”

 

Clover turned back to face him. “You’re going to learn how to swim.”

 

The shorter lemur huffed out a bitter laugh. “Oh-ho, I don’t think so.”

 

“Oh, I  _ do  _ think so,” Clover said, giving him a serious look. “Maurice, we got incredibly lucky when we had to jump out of that cave. But what if something like that happens again and you’re by yourself?”

 

Maurice didn’t have an answer. The annoyance on his face subsided to anxiety as he gazed as the crashing waves.

 

Clover took note of this, but was determined to succeed in her mission. “Well, let’s go then.” She started towards the water again, only to realize Maurice wasn’t following her. “Maurice, you’re going to have to get in the water for this to work.”

 

The aye aye started shaking his head. “Clover, I.. I-I can’t. Th-the waves are gonna just… swallow me up and dr-drag me down, and I… I can’t get in there. Please don’t make me go in there.”

 

Clover studied him. It seemed like an excuse, but he had a point; the waves were awfully strong this morning, probably not ideal for someone who didn’t know how to swim. “Would standing water be better?”

 

Maurice stared at the ground, tapping his fingers together. “ _ No  _ water would be best.”

 

Clover sighed. “Come on. I know a place.”

 

They headed back into the jungle to a fairly small watering hole a short distance from their village. Clover decided to get right to it and waded into the water until it came halfway up to her chest. Maurice stood nervously at the edge of the water, holding on to his tail. 

 

Both were quiet for a minute before Clover broke the silence. “No big waves here.”

 

“Oh yeah, yeah, I see that.”

 

“Now would be a good time to get in.”

 

Maurice stared at the pond for a bit before releasing his tail from his paws as a frustrated look came over his face. “Oh, why do you want me to learn this, anyway?”

 

“Because we live on an island  _ surrounded  _ by water!” Clover exclaimed. “It’s actually very concerning to me that you’re an adult and you don’t know how to swim. This is something you need to know how to do. Now stop being a Willie and get over here!”

 

“I am  _ not  _ a Willie!”

 

_ “Then get in the water!” _

 

Maurice balled his hands into fists and bit his lower lip, remaining in his spot. Clover could see his whole body shake with anxiety, even from a distance. 

 

“Oh my gosh, you’re... actually scared…”

 

She made her way out of the water. Maurice sunk to the ground and curled his tail around himself. Clover sat down next to him. “You never learned to swim because you’re afraid of the water?”

 

Maurice solemnly nodded; he refused to look at her. The more Clover thought about it, the more a lot of things started making sense. Whenever King Julien threw a water slide party, Maurice always hung around the sidelines and observed rather than participated. The few occasions the ringtail had managed to drag him in the water, he stayed in the shallow parts and bolted from the pool as soon as Julien wasn’t looking. He had refused to participate in any of the water drills while they were training to go to outer space.

 

And when they had been forced to jump into the ocean while fleeing from Doc Sugarfoot’s boulder, he had gone into a full blown panic attack and she’d had to hold on to him the entire swim to the beach. Even when they had gotten out of the water, he’d been so shaken up that he’d clung to her tail for dear life until they had reached the election.

 

Clover put a paw on his arm. “Hey, look at me.” He begrudgingly looked up. “I’m sorry you’re scared. But I want to help you, here… this really is something you should know how to do.”

 

Maurice sighed. “I know. But I just.. I can’t even be in there without freaking out. I don’t why it scares me so much, but it does.”

 

“...I suppose I can’t make it stop scaring you. But I’ll stay right next to you. Nothing will happen, I promise.” He still looked unsure. “We don’t have to do any swimming today. We can just sit in the water, get used to that first.”

 

Maurice glanced from her to the water, then back to Clover again before sighing. “Alright.”

 

Clover stood up and held out her paw to Maurice, which he slowly took. She stepped into the water and turned to him, waiting. While his breathing was still ragged, Maurice took the step into the pond. Clover took another step. Maurice followed. The process repeated itself until they were several feet inward; the water came to Maurice’s chest but only to Clover’s waist.

 

“You alright?” Clover asked him. He stood very still, staring down at the water. “For Frank’s sake, Maurice, breathe!” 

 

Maurice sucked in a breath. “I’m breathing, I’m breathing. And I’m-- yeah, I’m okay.”

 

Clover kneeled in the water to be at his height. “Don’t feel like you’re going to freak out?”

 

“No… as long as you don’t go anywhere, anyway.”

 

“I won’t. Don’t worry.”

 

They sat there in the water for several minutes. The sun was fully over them now; soon the jungle would be coming to life for the day.

 

“We’d better get back, before King Julien tracks us down and decides to join the lesson,” Clover finally said.

 

“Yeah, good idea… Clover?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Clover grinned. “Of course… I’m thinking our next session is going to be getting you down that water slide.” If she could learn to love it, he certainly could too.


End file.
